Thursday, 3 February 2011

Pennine Bridleway Relays

First time Eden have entered this event, but im sure it wont be the last. No better event for uniting the club road runners and fell runners for a thoroughly enjoyable day.

We managed to field 2 teams of 10 and both teams did themselves proud, especially as most of us hadn't a clue what to expect.

The team I was in consisted mostly of fell runners and the first leg was ran superbly by Anth Labram and Sam Ware who passed over to Kim Collison and Carl Bell in a fantastic 14th place. A fantastic start.
Kim and Carl did what we all hoped they would do and ran a solid leg, passing over to myself and Alex Davies in 12th position, a gain of 2 places.

Sam and Anth- leg 1

Carl and Kim- leg 2

At the finish

Because me and Alex didn't have a clue of the route we were hoping that they would come in with another team near them, so we could sit on their shoulders and follow them. They did.....Borrowdale!

So we set off with Borrowdale only seconds ahead. We had promised each other that we would work as a team and pull each other along if the other was struggling, I cant understand why some runners run so far ahead of their partner only to wait for them at the checkpoint!

We both had strong runs and we soon caught and passed Bowland with a Clayton team not far ahead.
Luckily for us tho Borrowdale missed a tight turn and carried on thus taking Clayton with them costing them both a good minute.
We had one big climb left and soon passed over to Andy Thompson and Jon Toombs in 9th place and very relieved.

Andy and Jon ran strong on leg 4 and held on to 9th place to pass the dibber on to Gary Johnson and Mark Bissell, who had the tough task to bring us in.

After a anxious wait they emerged through the school gate neck and neck with Bowland.
A sprint finish and a confused marshal saw us finish the day in 12th position out of 104 other teams.
Our other team had by all accounts a brilliant day and all are looking forward to it again next year.Results